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Journalism of Courage
Facing allegations of sexual exploitation and harassment by women wrestlers, BJP’s Kaiserganj MP and Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh has not campaigned for any party candidate in the Uttar Pradesh urban local body elections so far even as he has been camping in his home district Gonda for more than 10 days.
In the ongoing polls, the BJP has given all the party MPs and MLAs from the state tasks related to the campaign such as holding of public meetings and running door-to-door programmes in support of their candidates.
Singh is the only MP, sources said, who has stayed away from the party’s campaign in the elections.
Sources said that after the fresh round of controversy Singh stopped attending political programmes. The last political event he attended was a meeting of the BJP’s Awadh region at the party’s state headquarters in Lucknow on April 25 on the civic body poll preparations, two days after the agitating wrestlers returned to Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.
Straddling the districts of Gonda and Bahraich, the Kaiserganj Lok Sabha constituency comprises several nagar palikas and nagar panchayats.
Having skipped the campaign, Singh on Tuesday in a video message appealed to the voters from Gonda, Bahraich and Balrampur districts to vote for the BJP candidates. The WFI chief said that he could not meet the voters directly since he was going through a “rough patch” following a conspiracy hatched against him.
A BJP leader at the party’s state headquarters said that all the party MPs were asked to do canvassing for candidates, but Singh did not. A party functionary in Bahraich said the local unit did not invite him for the campaign. “Singh’s supporters are candidates from several seats on BJP tickets. But he did not campaign for them as well,” he said.
Singh, however, meets people on a daily basis in Gonda where he has been camping. On Wednesday, a delegation of village pradhans led by Muslim clerics met the MP in Bahraich and extended support to him.
On April 30, Singh organised the screening of 100th episode of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Mann ki Baat’s radio message on an LCD screen on the campus of a college run by him. Same day, a group of sadhus from Ayodhya and Hastinapur (Nepal) met him in Gonda, extended their support to him over the controversy, assuring that they were ready to stage a sit-in at Jantar Mantar to “seek justice” for him.
Away from political activities, Singh in Gonda is following his daily routine of visiting a gaushala (cowshed), a stable and a gymnasium besides attending weddings and other family functions of his supporters.
Speaking to The Indian Express, the MP said, “I am staying away from the campaign for the urban local body polls and political programmes because of the ongoing controversy and allegations. But I have issued appeal to the voters.”
All the sections of society were supporting him, he claimed.
“Interaction with people is essential to me and I will contest the 2024 Lok Sabha election,” he added.
